Wood chippings,manure etc

I have some wood chippings from a cherry tree I have just cut down and would like to use them as a mulch in the garden.
Nowhere to really store them so will need to get on the ground fairly soon.
I was going to put some farmyard manure (the commercial bagged sort) on the garden this year.
Is it OK to lay the manure on first and cover with the chippings or would the chippings be enough on their own?
Mostly shrubs but the soil is clay and I want a bit of structure in it.
Any advice welcome!

 

@medpenquin, yes, I think manure first (after's rained if poss) then chippings on the top would be best. The advice is to let chippings mature for a few months before using round plants so putting the manure on first then chippings would allow for that.

I'm planning to do the same - when I get around to it!

 

I use fresh chippings around trees and shrubs with no problem.
But I agree if you can compost it to some extent it will be better.

I dont manure or feed shrubs and trees, they just have to get on with it in my garden.

 

Any organic matter added to the soil is beneficial for shrubs/trees/hedging @madpenguin , as it improves the structure, helps with drainage in heavy clay, and holds moisture in drier soil, which I expect is really useful in very dry areas of the UK. I tend to use old compost from annuals, or leaf mould if I have it, but also home made compost - even if it isn't properly broken down, which is often the case as it's a slower process here.
If you use the wood chips, add them after that, as the others have said.

 

Yes I agree with previous posts. There is a piece of conventional gardening "wisdom" that raw woodchip will rob the soil of nitrogen as it breaks down. The truth is, unless you pile it on a foot thick or more then this doesn't happen, to any significantly measurable degree. Yes the bacteria and fungi use nitrogen but there's plenty in the air, as long as the layers are not too thick, it will be fine.

 

Yes, they seem to have debunked that theory about the nitrogen @Allotment Boy .
I wouldn't worry at all if it's just a 'normal' sort of layer being put on.

 

Years ago I brought home a few large bags of wood chippings, obviously this would be seasoned timber shavings like they use for horses and pets bedding.
I dug a fair amount of it into my clay soil to try to break it up.
Must say nothing grew very well that year so never did it again.

 

Shavings used for bedding aren't quite the same thing as wood chippings though @pete.

 

It's wood and it's in small pieces
Probably rots faster as it's smaller and thinner.

 

I've often mixed, or spread, spare shavings in/on the soil [heavy clay] and never had a problem. We had guinea pigs etc when the girls were little, so I've often used spare stuff on soil, and I had some leftover shavings recently [for the hedgehog house etc] which I used up that way.

Much of the stable manure I've used [from where I used to work] was shavings based.
I wouldn't really regard shavings on their own as a reliable method of helping to break up clay though. It's the manure that does that

 

It was an experiment because I could get hold of loads of it at the time.
All I'm saying is it wasn't a good idea in my opinion.
But I do agree that green wood chippings as a thin mulch isn't a problem.

 

The wood robbing nitrogen from the soil potential will vary with surface area, so wood shavings will likely cause more problems than if you buried a log (why hugelkultur can work), for example. Digging them in is the problem, if they are left on the soils surface, you get a negligible effect at the soil interface. If you keep the reaction zone away from the plants roots, you will be fine.

 

Thanks all. Nice to hear what others do.
I will get some bagged farmyard manure and fork over the soil before I lay it then cover with the chippings.
I think that there is a good 6 months for the chippings to 'mature' over the winter and early spring with hopefully rain etc to help break it down.
Off to order the manure now!!